Ethiopian weekly blocked for reporting on Meles' health

Nairobi, July 23,
2012--Ethiopian authorities blocked the publication of a prominent
independent newspaper over the weekend in connection with its stories on the health
of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, according to local journalists.

The state-run
printing company Berhanena
Selam told the weekly Fetehearly Sunday that the government had ordered that week's edition of the
paper, about 30,000 copies, to be blocked on grounds of inciting national
insecurity and endangering the government and the public, local journalists
said. The paper had prepared pieces citing reports from the BBC and the exiled opposition
group, Ethiopian National Transitional Council, local journalists said. A
government spokesman did not return CPJ calls seeking comment.

News accounts have
reported that Meles has been hospitalized in Brussels with an undisclosed
condition.

"The ban on Feteh's
latest issue illustrates the depth of repression in Ethiopia today, and
authorities' determination to suppress independent coverage of the prime
minister," CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes said. "Every citizen has a
right to be informed about the well-being of their leader and the conduct of
their government. Authorities should reverse their decision and allow the
publication of Feteh's weekend edition to proceed."

The printing company
itself had initially balked at publishing the edition because of the stories,
but finally agreed to do so if the paper cut its press run, according to news
reports. Berhanena Selam said in April that it would refuse to print any
material it believed would violate the country's 2009 anti-terrorism law,
according to news reports.
The legislation criminalizes independent reporting on opposition causes the
government deems terrorist, and holds printers, as well as publishers,
accountable for material that "promotes terrorism."

Feteh is one of a
handful of independent newspapers still operating in Ethiopia and has one of
the highest circulations, local journalists said. The paper and its staffers
have been subjected to harassment in the past. Authorities have placed Feteh Chief Editor Temesghen
Desalegn under surveillance and filed more than 30 legal cases against him
since the paper's inception in 2008, Temesghen said. In May, an Ethiopian court
sentenced
Temesghen to a suspended four-month prison term on charges of contempt of the
judiciary for publishing the verbatim courtroom statement made by imprisoned
journalist Eskinder
Nega during his trial,
according to news reports. In the statement, Eskinder professed his
innocence and questioned the independence of the court and the fairness of the
proceedings.

A month earlier, state prosecutors
filed a formal complaint against Feteh
for "repeatedly publishing articles which put down the court's
responsibility, disgrace its trust and undermine people's trust on the rule of
law," local journalists said.

For more data and analysis on Ethiopia, visit CPJ's Ethiopia page here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This alert has been modified to reflect the correct spelling of Berhanena Selam.